Cassava peels in the diet of young pigs in Nigeria

Cassava tuber peels were analysed for their chemical composition. Graded levels were included in the diets of young pigs in 2 separate experiments to determine their nutritive value for growth and their effect on carcass characteristics. Cassava peels made up 11.8% of the tuber and contained 19.10 MJ/kg, gross energy and 140.90 ppm free cyanide. In the first experiment, involving 40 individually fed pigs averaging 9.35 kg liveweight, levels of 0, 7.50, 15.0, 22.50 and 30.00% of cassava peels were included in iso-nitrogenous diets. There were no significant differences in growth performance between the dietary treatments (P > 0.05). In the second experiment, 32 individually penned pigs averaging 35.17 kg were fed iso-nitrogenous (16% CP) and iso-caloric (15.02 MJ/kg ME) diets in which cassava peels were included in the diets at levels of 0, 19, 38 and 57 per cent. There were no significant differences in average daily gain, average daily feed intake and feed/gain between treatments. Carcass weights and measurements were also not significantly different (P > 0.05). The use of cassava peels as a partial replacement for maize in young pig diets was shown to be cost effective. It was established in the study that up to a 57% level of inclusion had no deleterious effect on the pigs.